Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1951)

On Giving Proof To the Pudding of Public Relations for DECEMBER 1951 GEORGE SCHUTZ, Editor EDITORIAL INDEX: Page THE CINEMA, FRAMINGHAM. MASS. ------ 8 . . . combining tor the first time a maskless screen with synchronous surround, and neutral treatment of the auditorium, to provide conditions tor greater impact ot the performance. ADAPTING EXISTING AUDITORIUMS TO "FULL VISION" MOVIES --------------- 11 ON THE HOUSE department: Two Newspapers Columnists Find the Theatre Better'n Ever for Movies ----- 14 THE DRIVE-IN department: For the Refreshment Stand — products culled from the 1951 hotel show exhibits 16 DECEMBER MANAGER OF THE MONTH ----- 18 THEATRE SALES department: A Five-Star Policy for Stand Attendants 2 1 "It Rang the Bell for Me" 22 The Vender-Vane: Market News -------- 24 THE NEEDLE'S EYE, Projection Department: The Small Cost of Ousting the Menace of Low-Intensity ------ 27 THEATRE TELEVISION EQUIPMENT (a series): Part 4— Simplex TV System - - - 31 ABOUT PRODUCTS ------------ 33 ABOUT PEOPLE OF THE THEATRE ------- 36 is published the first week of each month, with the regular monthly issues, and an annual edition, the Market & Operating Guide, which appears in March, issued as Section Two of Motion Picture Herald, QUIGLEY PUBLICATIONS, Rockefeller Cenfer, New York 20, N. Y., Circle 7-3100; RAY GALLO, Advertising Manager; CHICAGO: 120 S. LaSalle Street, Financial 6-3074; URBEN FARLEY, Midwest Representative; HOLLYWOOD: Yucca-Vine Building, Granite 2145. f HE industry's decision to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative is paying off. The movies are getting a good press these days. The industry has provided most of the impetus, in its product, and in a splendid display of proud confidence. How much of a change the newer product represents, this scribe wouldn't estimate. The face that the industry is showing its customers, however, does constitute a considerable alteration. In place of the hang-dog look of a year or so ago we have "Movietime, U.S.A." Appeal to spectacular drives and to slogans does itself imply that good product is not the whole answer. Even with an upturn in picture quality the business has of course had to contend with the fact that precisely when mounting living costs and taxes reduced the surplus from which the recreational dollar must come, the movies had to compete with more things to spend it on. O it is that more than words — something real, something physical is needed to support the inspirational campaigns and the slogans; something of substance to endure when the ballyhoo has done its job. Third-dimension would be fine, only we ain't got it. "Peripheral modulation" is a good idea but still just an idea. What we do have, however, is equipment more capable than ever to reproduce what Hollywood puts on the film. To make full use of it would be to give movies something appreciably and permanently new in more than half the theatres of the land! Also, something new for exhibition generally is immediately available in the elimination of screen masking. And something new is more or less as available, depending on the specific effect of defense controls, in the elimination of architectural and decorative interferences now in countless auditoriums, and the substitution therefor of forms and surfaces which give Hollywood a chance, unhampered, to do a job on the movies' competitors. The old fighting spirit, plus good pictures, has improved public relations. But it'll take high standards of exhibition, marching with technical advances, to hold the gain. — G. S. 7